


Hypothermia

by oofmilk



Category: Frozen (Disney Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern: No Powers, F/F, Gen, Hypothermia, Life Threatening Situation(s), Saving a Life, Strangers to Acquaintances, Stripping to survive, i mean i guess, not beta read we die like men
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-16
Updated: 2020-04-16
Packaged: 2021-03-02 02:22:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,002
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23677579
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/oofmilk/pseuds/oofmilk
Summary: Elsa just wanted to go home, and Honeymaren just wanted to go on a walk. One frozen lake ended up changing both of those plans.
Relationships: Elsa & Honeymaren (Disney), Elsa/Honeymaren (Disney), Honeymaren & Ryder Nattura
Comments: 3
Kudos: 70





	Hypothermia

The small town of Northuldra was interesting, to say the least. All of its necessity shops—food, clothing, and emergency services—fit on one block, which left recreational buildings and housing to another singular block of the town. A lake spanned out behind the library, though it was currently frozen over due to the winter weather. On the far side of the lake, facing the town, sat a small cabin that had held no residents for decades. None of the locals wanted to go in the old home since the daughter of the previous owner had left abruptly one night and was never heard from again. They all knew the place had been left to her in the owner’s will, but she never showed.

That old cabin, Elsa had learned not but a week before her departure for Northuldra, was rightfully hers as stated in her mother’s will. At the very least, she presumed, she would have a place of her own to stay during her (hopefully brief) time in town. It wasn’t that she hated the place, it was just that there were more important things she felt she could be doing for the company back home in the city.

Elsa sighed and rubbed her eyes for the umpteenth time that hour. Judging by the light, or lack thereof, streaming in through the library’s windows, it was late, and she was finding it hard to concentrate on the history books laid out in front of her. The librarian kept glancing at her when they thought she wasn’t looking, anyway, so Elsa decided to pack up her things and head home, in the loosest sense of the word. She collected her purse and phone before placing the books in the designated area to be collected and reshelved. Anna had told her something a long while ago about the number of books being pulled from the shelf correlated to how much funding a library received from the government, and Elsa was honestly surprised she managed to recall even that much in her current tired state of mind.

Elsa waved to the librarian as she left the library. The street lamps lining the streets were lit, but they didn’t stretch behind the library and towards the cabin to light the way. The grocer had told Elsa, on her first day in town, that the town council had seen no need to put street lamps in that expanse since no one lived in the cabin. Now, with nothing to guide her but the weak glow of her phone’s flashlight, Elsa wished the council had been a little more considerate to whomever ended up moving into the cabin.

It took until she was about ten feet from the back of the library for Elsa to realize that it had been snowing while she was reading, and now the ground was covered with several inches of freshly fallen snow. If her mind were clearer, Elsa would have cursed the fact that she had no idea where the edge of the lake ended and the solid ground began now. She stopped, briefly, and contemplated sweeping the snow away with her feet to make sure she wasn’t in any potential danger, but the urge to make the trip between the library and her cabin as short as possible won out. Elsa took two large steps to the side and continued walking. 

The snow crunched under her boots with every step. Elsa allowed her thoughts to wander to Anna, back in the city with Kristoff, then to their mother. She had never talked about owning a cabin, or even the town of Northuldra, and Elsa couldn’t imagine why. Her best guess was that the town held bad memories her mother hadn’t wanted to confront again, but if that was the case, why leave the cabin in her will in the first place? The entire situation was confusing at best, and nothing Elsa read or researched brought her closer to a concrete answer.

Tiredness and not paying attention to your own footsteps resulted in a lack of coordination entirely, Elsa noted to herself as her foot caught on the other and sent her sprawling to the ground. She swore, perhaps a bit louder than she should have, and lifted herself up. If she was lucky, Elsa would get home before she froze in her wet clothes, but she doubted she would be that lucky. Her next step was met with a cracking sound. She stopped and listened, but when nothing else came of it, Elsa assumed she stepped on a hidden tree branch and shrugged it off. Another cracking sound filled the empty air with the next step. Already immensely annoyed with the sound, Elsa quickened her pace.

Then the ground underneath her feet caved in, and Elsa fell in the lake.

* * *

Honeymaren wasn’t usually one for late night walks, but tonight she just couldn’t sleep. She blamed her sleeplessness entirely on that new woman in town. Everything about her was intriguing and shrouded in a layer of mystery, but she hardly gave anyone the time of day. Maren hadn’t even had a proper conversation with the mystery woman, and she doubted she ever would.

As she passed the library, Maren heard the telltale sound of ice breaking. She thought nothing of it, as the ice over the lake oftentimes did break due to the weight of the snow sitting on top of it, but something _did_ seem off. She walked a few more paces before another sound met her ears: splashing. It stopped as soon as it started, but Maren couldn’t help but groan and round the side of the building. She wouldn’t feel right if she let an innocent animal freeze to death in the water. She drew her phone from her pocket and turned on the flashlight.

Maren quirked a brow when she saw some of the snow over the lake glowing. She wasn’t an expert in the weather by any means, but she was _pretty_ sure snow wasn’t supposed to glow. Had one of the kids dropped a glow stick in the snow again? Against her better judgement, Maren slowly approached the glowing snow. Her quirked brow came down into a furrow when she saw a phone in the snow. She swung her flashlight around but didn’t see any other people on the lake. Who would just leave a phone in the snow, with the flashlight on no less?

Maren’s gaze trailed from the phone to a sizable hole in the ice. Sighing, she got to her knees, then laid down on her stomach, by the edge and carefully lowered her hand into the water. The cold was biting, but she would grit her teeth and bear it so some random animal didn’t die. She didn’t want another repeat of a few summers ago when a dead animal floated to the surface of the lake, terrifying everyone on the water and making more than one small child cry. Her fingers brushed against something solid, and Maren moved her hand to reach for it. Instead of finding fur or scales under her fingertips, she felt some sort of fabric.

A hand grabbed her arm.

On instinct Maren yelled and pulled her arm from the water. The hand fell away from her arm as it broke the surface and sank back down without further protest. It only took Maren a moment to realize that it wasn’t an animal that had fallen into the lake, it was a _person._ Cursing, she thrust her arm back into the water and fished around for the victim’s hand. She found it quickly and made sure she was holding it tightly before pulling as hard and swiftly as she could.

Maren made sure to shift up to her knees for more leverage when the victim’s head came above water. She dropped her phone in the snow and used her now free hand to grab them under the armpit. Despite it being completely irrational, Maren cursed the victim for risking their safety by walking over the lake. Everyone _knew_ that the lake wasn’t safe to cross in the dead of winter like this. She finally pulled them completely from the water and sat back on her butt, holding them close both for warmth and to find out who they were. One glance at their face revealed them to be the new woman, and Maren groaned. Everyone _else_ in town knew not to cross the lake, but _she_ didn’t.

Another, vastly more important, thought crossed her mind. The woman was unconscious, and Maren needed to get her somewhere warm. Shit, what if she had hypothermia? Maren didn’t know a damn thing about hypothermia. But Ryder did, and he was at home where it was warm… Maren picked up both of their phones, a purse (Where had that come from?) she just then noticed nearby, and the woman as she thought through her plan. Would Ryder appreciate her bringing home a hypothermia victim at ass o’clock at night? Oh, definitely not. Did Maren particularly care? Also definitely not. Once the woman was settled in a bridal carry, Maren started walking as fast as she dared to her house. 

It was only once she reached the front door did Maren realize that she didn’t have a free hand to open it. She deliberated on the best way to get Ryder to wake up for a moment before deciding a swift kick to the kick plate would suffice. Inside she heard the sound of someone falling off of something and held back a snort. It was just like Ryder to fall over at a sudden sound.

“ _Maren_!” Ryder groaned out from inside. “What did you kick the door for?” He opened it and stopped. “Who is that?”

“Someone who might have hypothermia, now may I come back inside please and thank you?” 

Ryder nodded once and moved aside to let his sister and the woman in. He busied himself with turning on the lights while Maren busied herself with… literally everything else. Her demands of warmth and where to put the woman all sounded like muddled mush in his still mostly asleep state. A quick shake of his head dispelled the remnants of his sleep, and he got to work.

“Here, put her in the living room, and—“ Ryder stopped his pursuit of a blanket and looked at the woman. “Is she wet?”

“Yeah, she fell in the lake.” Maren blinked. “What does that have to do with this?”

“Only the fact that you need to take her clothes off before they turn her into a human popsicle.” He shrugged at the gaping look Maren gave him. “Don’t worry, I’ll go in the other room. Make sure to wrap her up in a blanket once you’re done.”

“Wait, Ryder—!”

“Chop chop, Maren!”

With that, Ryder left the living room. Once again, Maren cursed the woman. The _last_ thing she wanted to be doing was undressing someone who was unconscious, but it wasn’t like she was going to let the woman die either. Maren allowed herself the luxury of a final groan before moving to the couch. She laid the woman down, discarding the purse somewhere to the side, and undressed her as quickly as she could. The sooner the woman was undressed, the sooner Maren could cover her with a blanket and call her brother back in. Though, she did have to admit, the woman was kind of hot.

_No!_ Maren scolded herself. _This woman is in your_ house _! Potentially dying! Get a grip!_

Finally, after too long, in Maren’s honest opinion, the woman was undressed and wrapped up. She knew her face was hot and flushed, and Ryder would never let her live it down. He could _not_ come back until she got her face under control. Though, Ryder apparently did not care. Maren’s only warning that he was coming back in was a knock, a respectable pause, and his appearance in the doorframe. 

“I made hot chocolate,” he said, gesturing to the mug in his hand. “Though you should let it cool down first. How’s she doing?”

“Uh.” Maren looked at the woman. “I think she’s doing okay? I’m not sure, I’ve never dealt with hypothermia before.”

“Okay…” Ryder said slowly. “How long has she been unconscious? You should try waking her up.”

“Right, okay.” Maren sat next to the woman and gently shook her shoulder. “Ma’am? Uh, you need to wake up.”

After a minute of shaking the woman, Maren looked up to her brother with a look that could only be described as “Now what?” He sighed and set the mug down on the table. 

“Keep trying to wake her, I’m going to call someone about the lake.” Ryder gestured over his shoulder with his thumb. “So…”

Maren waved him off and sighed, thumping her head back on the headrest. “Ugh, what—“

“Call who?” a weak voice asked.

Maren sat upright immediately and looked at the woman. She was awake, thankfully, but looked as though she may fall back asleep at any moment.

“My brother’s going to call someone about that hole you made… in the ice.” Maren coughed to give herself an excuse to shut the fuck up. “Uh, here. He made hot chocolate. Careful, it’s… hot. Duh.”

Maren lifted the mug to the woman’s lips and held it there while she drank. Okay, this was good. Right? Right. She was awake, and drinking something warm, which sounded like the right thing to be doing for someone experiencing hypothermia. She brought the mug away from the woman’s lips and waited. For what, Maren wasn’t sure.

“Call…” her eyelids fluttered, fighting to stay open, but ultimately failing. “Anna.”

“No, hey, wait, stay awake.”

It was a fruitless request, and the woman was asleep again. Okay, so, she was calling Anna. Who was Anna? At a best guess, Maren would say her sibling or cousin, maybe a concerned friend if she was feeling sad. The only way she was going to find out was by calling, so she withdrew the phone from her pocket. Maren frowned when she saw it locked.

“Sorry…” Maren muttered as she pulled the woman’s hand free to unlock the phone. “Okay, Anna… Anna…” 

She skimmed the (surprisingly few!) contacts and found the person in question, listed ironically as “Anna - ICE.” She wondered if Anna would even pick up at this time of night, which read as past midnight, according to the woman’s phone, but she had to try. Maren hit dial and took a breath.

_“Ugh, Elsa, it’s past midniiiiight,”_ a voice on the other end whined.

Elsa. So that was the woman’s name. Maren guessed the person currently groaning into their phone was Anna.

“Um, hi, is this Anna?” Maren tried.

_“You’re not my sister,”_ Anna said. _“Why do you have her phone? Oh, spirits, is she so sick that she’s loopy? That’s happened to her before.”_

“Loopy? No, no, she’s not…” Maren paused. “Well, she might be sick. I’m not sure.”

_“Might be?”_ There was silence on Anna’s end for a moment. _“What’s going on? Where’s Elsa?”_

“Elsa, uh… Okay, so I don’t know all the details, but I think she fell through the ice on the lake.”

_“WHAT?”_

Maren had to pull the phone away from her ear. “Yeah. Don’t worry, I pulled her out, and she’s at my house. My brother and I think she’s okay, but she said to call you, so I… did.”

_“Um, holy shit? How long was she in the water for?”_

“I’m not sure. Not that long…?” Maren chewed on her lip as the silence between her and Anna stretched on. “Anna? You okay?”

_“Yeah! Yeah, I’m…”_ Anna sniffed. _“Sorry, I just… Elsa asked me to come with her for another perspective or whatever, but I said no because it overlapped with my anniversary with my boyfriend, and I just… I feel kind of like an asshole.”_ Another silence stretched between them. _“Oh my God, I’m so sorry about that. Jesus Christ.”_

“No, it’s okay. I understand you’re probably really upset about all this.” Maren cringed. Now _she_ was the one who sounded like an asshole. “I, uh, I’ll call you if anything worse… happens. I’ll do everything I can for Elsa, okay?”

_“Thank you, seriously. I’m glad Elsa has at least one friend out there.”_ Anna sighed. _“I’m really tired, so I’m… gonna try to go back to sleep. I’ll call you again in the morning. That sound good?”_

“Sounds great. Goodnight, Anna.”

_“Goodnight.”_

Maren ended the call and set Elsa’s phone down on the coffee table. Well, that went about as well as she could have hoped for a conversation about someone almost freezing to death in a frozen lake. Maren leaned her head back again and closed her eyes. She just needed to rest her eyes for a minute, and then she would be good to go. Just… one minute.

* * *

When Maren woke up the next morning, she found she was still on the couch. She supposed her “just a minute” rest ended up being much longer than that. The soreness of her neck urged her to sit up and stretch out. Once properly stretched, Maren looked over at Elsa and was not surprised in the slightest to find her still asleep. Still, it was—Maren looked at the time on her phone—nearly ten in the morning, so they both needed to get up and eat something.

“Hey, Elsa,” Maren said softly as she shook Elsa’s shoulder. “Time to wake up. You need to eat something.”

Elsa roused much easier than she had the previous night. She blinked a few times, peering intently at Maren standing over her. Her hand came to rest on her collar, and Maren watched as her face morphed from shock to understanding to horror.

“I’m naked,” Elsa said matter-of-factly.

“You are,” Maren replied.

“Oh my God. We didn’t…” Elsa gestured between the two of them. “Because I’m not that type of girl, and I was just _really_ tired last night.”

“What? No! No, we didn’t.” Maren hated that she knew her face was flushed ( _again_ ). “You fell into the lake last night, so I brought you back here and took your clothes off so you wouldn’t freeze. I’m, uh, Maren, by the way.”

“Oh.” Elsa frowned and furrowed her brows. “I don’t remember that, just that I was walking home from the library and I was suddenly really, really cold.”

“Yeah, cold water will do that.” Maren mentally kicked herself. “Uh, are you hungry? I got you to drink some hot chocolate last night, but then you fell asleep before I could ask you anything else.”

“I am, actually, but I don’t want to—“ Elsa’s eyes widened. “Oh my God, Anna! I have to call Anna!”

“Woah, hey, it’s okay. You told me to call Anna before you passed out again. They’re all caught up.”

“Thank you. She would have killed me herself if I forgot to call her about something as important as falling into a frozen lake.” Elsa sighed and closed her eyes again. “Some business trip this is turning out to be.”

“You’re here on business?” Maren asked, sitting back down at Elsa’s side. “Northuldra isn’t the kinda town you think of when someone says ‘business trip.’”

“I know. I’m here to learn about the town and its history, as well as how it’s currently being run and such, for an article about the oldest towns in Norway.” Elsa opened her eyes and looked at Maren. “That, and I’m trying to find out more about that old cabin and my mother.”

“Your mother owned the cabin across the lake?” Maren didn’t know whether to be surprised or relieved that _someone_ finally claimed the place. “It’s been empty for years.”

“It was left to her in my grandmother’s will just like it was left to me in hers,” Elsa answered.

“Oh…” Maren frowned. “I’m so sorry for your loss.”

“It’s okay, she died years ago.” Elsa waved her off, if a bit sadly. “I’m done mourning.” 

“Still.” They sat in silence a moment. “You actually scared the shit out of me last night.”

“I did?” Elsa raised a brow. “How so?”

“When I had my arm in the water the first time, you grabbed it, and you scared me. I was kind of expecting an animal.” Maren laughed. “It was like being in a really shitty horror movie.”

Elsa laughed as well. “I’ve never really liked horror movies, anyway. All of the protagonists are so _dumb_. I mean, who runs into a dead end when they’re being chased by a murderer?”

“Then I guess I’ll have to show you _Scream_ sometime. The protagonist of that movie is actually pretty smart by horror movie standards.”

“I think I would like that.”

Maren blushed slightly when she realized she had basically invited Elsa to hang out. Or was it a date? No, it wasn’t a date. But was it? Surely not… right? Ryder knocking just outside the living room saved Maren from her own thoughts.

“Hey, I heard you two talking, so I figured I’d go ahead and make you some breakfast. Are you decent?” he asked.

“Uh…” Maren glanced at Elsa. “No.”

“Your clothes are on the table,” Ryder said. “I washed and dried them for you this morning.”

“You didn’t have to do that, but thank you,” Elsa said.

“Anytime. I’ll be in the kitchen if you need me.”

Ryder’s footsteps grew quieter as he walked away, and Maren took it as her cue to cover her eyes and look away. She may have already seen Elsa naked, but that was out of necessity for her safety. Besides, she had practically fallen asleep on top of her. Maren very much so did _not_ want to make this any more awkward than it was.

“Okay, I’m ready,” Elsa said after a moment.

Maren turned back around to find her dressed and holding her phone. “Great. Let’s go get that breakfast.”

She led her guest, if you could call someone who unknowingly spent the night sleeping on your couch that, into her kitchen, where Ryder was standing at the stove. He pointed behind himself to where a stack of pancakes was waiting on the counter.

“I didn’t know if you were vegan or vegetarian or whatever, so I didn’t make any eggs or anything like that,” Ryder said, never taking his eyes from the pancakes currently in his pan. 

“Oh, I’m not, but thank you for the consideration anyway.” Elsa took the plate Maren handed to her and put some food on it. “My name is Elsa, if you don’t already know.”

“Ryder,” he replied. “You feeling any better this morning?”

“I am, actually. Thank you both for helping me out. I… probably would have drowned if it weren’t for you, Maren.” Elsa smiled sheepishly. “I hope we—“

She was cut off by her phone ringing. Caller ID said that it was Anna, and it was then that Maren remembered that, oh yeah, Anna said she was going to call. That was probably something she should have mentioned earlier.

“Oh, sorry, I was supposed to tell you that she was going to call again this morning,” Maren explained.

“It’s okay. I’m just going to go take this call. Be right back.”

Maren’s eyes trailed after Elsa as she left, but she would never admit that she missed the other woman’s presence immediately. She caught Ryder smirking at her in her peripheral vision and turned to him.

“Uh oh, I think you like her!” he teased in a sing-songy voice.

“Oh shut up,” Maren remarked, shoving him lightly. “I just think she’s cute.”

“Mhm, just cute.” Ryder turned the stove off and turned to face his sister. “Ten bucks says you end up confessing before her business trip is over and she leaves town.”

“Real mature, Ryder.” Maren rolled her eyes, but she couldn’t stop a blush from spreading across her cheeks. “You’re on.”

**Author's Note:**

> I do not condone the fashion in which Honeymaren committed her ice rescue. In a real life situation, please don’t immediately start with sticking your hands under the water!!


End file.
